This kid went from what some considered a reach at Number 3, a player who some scouts said was 'too smart' for basketball, too raw, a project, just an athlete, to being a 21 year old second year player playing big minutes on a winning team.
Half way through the season, hes averaging 14/5/2 on 46% from the field, 38% from 3.
While dunking all over fools.
On top of all that.....
When asked if he followed Kaepernicks plight:
"Yeah, I follow it. What I would say is Colin Kaepernick did was make a decision to do something that was right for him and his family and I agree with him. Everybody has a right to express themselves and I feel like Colin Kaepernick used his career and everything he had going for himself to be a martyr and whatever it is he felt was needed to be discussed. I goes to show that some of the things you do or say can affect your career or where you work or your pay. Now people aren’t willing to hire him. His ability is there. It’s absurd. It’s not 30 quarterbacks, 20 quarterbacks that are better. A lot of people don’t want to talk about it because it’s not a situation that everyone feels comfortable talking about but it’s something needs to be addressed nonetheless and Colin was addressing a topic that needs to be addressed. Something needs to be done because the way the country is going, with things happening in Charlottesville and other places, it isn’t headed in the right direction. People need to continue having discussions and having the protests and the conscience-raising. Our country isn’t being represented very well."
Created, on his own, a "Welcome to the NBA" night for rookies out in Vegas during summer league that the NBAPA wants to steal now.
When asked if he still kept in touch with his old neighborhood:
"Just because I’m the outlier in my neighborhood who managed to avoid the barriers set up to keep the privileged in privilege, and the poor still poor, why should I forget about the people who didn’t have the same chance as me?”
When asked again about racism in America:
"We’ve got two young fish swimming one way and an older fish swimming the other way,” the 21-year-old star of the Boston Celtics says as he considers the enduring backdrop of race in the United States. “They cross paths and the older fish says: ‘What’s up guys, how’s the water?’ The two younger fish turn around and look back at the wiser fish and ask: ‘What’s water?’ They’ve never recognized that this is what they actually live in. So it takes somebody special like Martin Luther King to see past what you’ve been embedded in your whole life.”
- This references a speech given by author David Foster Wallace to a
graduating class at Kenyon College. The speech argues that there is a default setting for humans in the society they’re born into, and that makes it difficult for them fully understand its downsides.
When asked if sports is a escape form:
“That’s the reality because sports is a mechanism of control. If people didn’t have sports they would be a lot more disappointed with their role in society. There would be a lot more anger or stress about the injustice of poverty and hunger. Sports is a way to channel our energy into something positive. Without sports who knows what half of these kids would be doing?
When asked about the 'shut up and dribble' comment aimed at Lebron:
“That’s a narrative, I don’t know who’s painting it, but it’s been there for a long time, and I think it’s time to move on from it.”
“For me, growing up watching basketball, LeBron’s greatest influence is just being a role model,” Brown said. “Just being an African-American male who’s never been in trouble, you don’t see him in tabloids, you don’t see him involved in anything he shouldn’t be involved in. When he’s talking about something, he’s talking about something of importance. Just seeing that has been fantastic. His team, how he moves, just how he operates — especially in this era where the media and everybody records everything, it’s hard not to fall at some point. I don’t think LeBron ever has, I tip my hat to him. I respect him so much for that.”
During All Star Weekend, instead of hitting thots, he organized a 'Tech Hustle' for NBA players to mingle with Venture Capitalist:
“My thought process is to just educate athletes and people around you about what is really going on, especially basketball players,” Brown told The Undefeated. “A lot of people wait until the end of their careers to really get things going. I thought it would be more beneficial to start early, put your foot in the door and start educating yourself, because technology investments are where the real money is at.” Brown said he reached into his rolodex to put together a group that includes NBA legends, corporate leaders, venture capital titans and Bay Area rap icon Too $hort.
Clap for this dude. I know far too few people as smart as this kid, and I'm an old man.
